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Casino San Pablo
The poker room has been closed since May 12, 2010. Now renamed to San Pablo Lytton Casino. Only ten miles away from San Francisco, in the East Bay, just north of Oakland. They have a huge lit sign high in the air right next to the freeway (I-80), situated next to the exit you need to use (San Pablo Dam Road), but the sign is not at the casino itself (it's in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn a couple blocks away), which can throw you off if you try to "drive to the sign". Instead, take San Pablo Dam Road west until it dead ends a couple blocks in from the freeway—it ends right in front of the casino. Just drive straight through the fancy arches and you're there. One can also reach the casino via public transportation by the El Cerrito del Norte BART station and the 72 or 72R bus. 16 poker tables (plus a dozen or so tables of blackjack, pai-gow, and Three Card Poker) and a sea of bingo (slot) machines. Games Limit hold 'em: 3/6, 6/12, 9/18 (very rare). Blind structure at 3/6 is 2/3, 6/12 the structure is 1/3. No-limit hold 'em: 2/2/2, 100-100 buyin ($100 both min and max), 300-500 buyin (Tues & Thurs only). The three amounts in the listing are the blind amounts (first amount is paid by the button, second by the small blind, third by the big blind). The big blind is still not in for a full bet, though; anyone who opens must put in a bet of 4, minimum, to see the flop. Number of tables of NLHE at CSP is limited. To maximize the total drop, they limit the $100 NLHE to two tables at all times. This means the wait time to get an NLHE seat can be vary long at peak times. 7-Stud: No stud is spread. Rake: Rake for all games is $3+$1 jackpot for 7-9 players, $2+$1 for 6 players, $1+$1 for 5 or fewer players. Rake is taken directly out of the pot after the flop. Posting: New players do not need to post. Shuffling: Machines on all but two tables. Wait Time: There is almost always a list on the board; waits for any particular game can range from 5 minutes to an hour or more on weekend nights. Tournaments * Saturday, 10:15am NLHE: (registration starts at 9:30am). $50 + $5 buyin, no rebuys. 50 max players; alternates allowed. * Sunday, 10:15am NLHE: (registration starts at 9:30am). $50 + $5 buyin, no rebuys. 50 max players; alternates allowed. For both tournaments, signups are taken from seated players first. Effectively this means you must arrive early and take a seat in a live game if you want to play in the tourney. Jackpots and Promotions Bad beat jackpots (50% paid to losing hand; 10% to winning hand, rest split among all other players in the room). Both hole cards must play in both hands to qualify. * Mega. Quad A's or better beaten. $150,000. * Super Quad 8's or better beaten. $100,000. * Regular..: AAAKK or better beaten. $5,000 (Pays that table only: 50% to loser, 25% to winner, 25% Table Share) Royal Flush Jackpot: $250 to the holder of a royal flush. Need not get to river to collect. High Hand Jackpot: * Weekdays, periods of 1-2 hours between 2am and 1pm every weekday. $100 to holder of high hand for that period. * Sundays, periods of 1-2 hours between 11am and 1am at night (Mon morning). $100 to holder of high hand for the period. Atmosphere Original poster said: :My personal pick as the most pleasant place to play poker in the Bay Area. A small club of about two dozen tables with your normal assortment of California games on top of it. They are currently going through the legislative process to become a full fledged Indian casino with slot machines and table games. MarkT 2/12/06: :I'd pick any of the larger standalone poker halls over CSP, frankly. While they have a fairly nice poker area, it is still connected to the smoke-filled slot-machine-filled main casino area, so it's not particularly quiet, and the smoke drifts over into the poker area. CSP is nice, but wouldn't be my choice as a favorite. Good food, though. Neighborhood: Standard "business area" of town, with fast food restaurants, gas stations, etc, right next to it. Looks almost like a resort or a nice hotel from the street. Parking: Lots of parking (many hundreds of spaces) available on site. Tables and Chairs: Large 9 player tables. Felt is nice, soft felt with good padding. Player chairs are standard wood-frame chairs with nice padding; no wheels. CSP is currently undergoing construction for a new California table games section, so the poker wing is more cramped, but not to any extreme. Service and Comps Good food at reasonably good prices. I wish their sodas were larger, but it was OK. The meatloaf dinner I had was very tasty, good sized portions, and only cost about $6. People next to me had nice-looking steak-topped salads and so forth, all reasonably priced. Only downside was that some of the wait staff was new or incompetent; couldn't understand simple orders and would either bring the wrong thing or would not bring anything at all. One must also guard food and drink against sneaky bussers. Free self-serve coffee, tea. They do have a "Players Advantage" players club card, but it does not apply to poker. Links and Notes * Official Casino San Pablo Website * Nearest competitor is about 10 miles to the south: Oaks. * MarkT visited in Feb 2006 and May 2006.